Modern Combat 5: Blackout
Modern Combat 5: Blackout is the sixth edition in the Modern Combat series. It was released on July 24, 2014 and is the first game in the series developed by Gameloft Bucharest. Campaign One major change in the campaign of Blackout, compared to previous MC titles, is that the missions are a lot shorter. The average mission lasts 5-10 minutes, noticeably shorter than Zero Hour's or Fallen Nation's average mission length of 15-20 minutes. Modern Combat 5: Blackout also introduces allies, characters who follow along with the player, often joining in during conflicts. Like Zero Hour, the campaign missions in Modern Combat 5: Blackout vary in style. The game is primarily a first person shooter, but missions include controlling turrets on boats, helicopters, and even drones. Plot The protagonist in Blackout is Caydan Phoenix (a minor character from Modern Combat 4). Some other characters who play a big part in the campaign include Sophie Daviau and Isaac Tukura. The campaign begins with a cutscene, in which Phoenix and Daviau discuss current events in Gilman HQ, Tokyo. One month previously the World Liberation Army had launched a surprise attack on Venice, Italy, and a week after that an attack on several Asian networks. Phoenix tries to convince Daviau that the attack on Venice was a cover-up for something greater, but Daviau does not believe him. The cutscene ends, and the game begins as a flashback, with Phoenix and Jonathan Taylor infiltrating Venice as part of a Gilman Security Special Forces Unit. After moving through the buildings of Venice, shooting WLA soldiers, Phoenix and Taylor hijack an enemy boat. They escape through the Grand Canal, gunning down enemy boats and helicopters with a mounted turret. After the mission ends, another cutscene begins with Phoenix and Roux continuing their conversation. Phoenix further tries to convince Daviau that something big is about to happen, even insinuating that Gilman Security is involved, but before Daviau can respond the room they are in is attacked. Phoenix blacks out, and Daviau calls Tukura to rescue him. Phoenix wakes up a month later in Rinnoji Temple, Japan. The temple has been converted into a makeshift hospital, and is under the control of the Raiders. It is the first day of the International Summit on Cyber-Security, and Tokyo has become a battleground. Miku Kubo leads Phoenix out of the building, where he meets up with Tukura and Andrews and heads towards downtown Tokyo. Immediately after reaching downtown, the truck in which the group is traveling in is ambushed by the Raiders. Phoenix tries to hold them off using the 50 Caliber mounted on top of the vehicle, but eventually the truck is flipped. Tukura drags Phoenix away from the wreck just before it explodes, killing Andrews. They venture into the city on foot, gunning down every enemy in their way. In addition to Raiders, they also combat Gilman Security tricopters, drones that have been instructed to fire upon everyone. Eventually, they reach a safehouse. Once in the safehouse, Phoenix grabs a sniper rifle, climbs to the roof, and begins defending the building from the swarming Raiders. After a couple minutes of sniping, an Apache helicopter appears and launches a rocket at the building. The explosion blows up part of the roof, causing Phoenix to fall off. On the ground, Phoenix reenters the building and continues holding it off against the Raiders. Soon he is joined by Daviau and Hawk, and they bring the battle outside to the courtyard. After clearing the area of enemies, Phoenix and Hawk head out towards downtown Tokyo to place jammers for countering the enemy. Daviau and Phoenix meet at Daviau's office, where she tells Phoenix that he is officially dead to protect him and his daughter. She plays a comm log between Taylor and Everett Saunders. Taylor asks Saunders for "the money" and Saunders makes an appointment on a remote construction site in Tokyo the next day. Phoenix and Daviau are to stop the exchange. From this part, in the chapter "San Marco", the player will experience what really happened in Venice. Phoenix, Bull, Hawk and an unknown character are in a helicopter flying over Venice. The unknown character manning the machine gun is shot, and Bull tries to help him, but before he can the helicopter shifts and the man's body flies out of the heli. Phoenix almost falls out, but is pulled back in by Bull. Phoenix takes over the machine gun and defends the chopper from a barrage of enemies. After reaching their destination, Phoenix and Jonathan Taylor jump out of the helicopter, diving into the Grand Canal. Gunning through even more enemies, they secure "The Package", chemical weapons the UN has been storing in Venice. During extraction the helicopter is shot down, and Phoenix lands in the water, and Bull helps him into a boat. The Chapter "Ryogoku" begins. Phoenix and Hawk are sent on a mission to kill Bull, a corrupt Gilman Security personnel, working for Everett Saunders. As the pair approach the ambush point, they are attacked (never saw that one coming) by Gilman personnel working for Saunders and by drones. Phoenix extracts information from Bull's and Saunder's conversation, and then kills Bull. The duo makes their escape and are extracted. The Chapter "Gilman HQ" begins. Phoenix and the rest of his team infiltrates Gilman HQ. The building is heavily damaged by raiders, but the security is still present. After clearing out the lobby, they are sent to recive the information about Gilman's activities in the server room, however they lose Hawk in the process. After hacking into the system, Tukura and Phoenix make their escape on the rooftops of Gilman HQ. Only meeting Everett Saunders, shortly afterwards. Phoenix shoots down Saunder's helicopter in retalitaion for lossing their extracting chopper. At point blank range, the two rivals fight for one last time, only for Phoenix to come out victorious, and thus, ending Gilman's illegal activities. The game concludes with Phoenix with his daughter, Lily. And Deviau discusing about the fall of Gilman Security and his business partners. However Phoenix recivess an urgent message about unexpected uprisings in the world. Announcement Gameloft revealed the game for E3 on June 6, 2013, on their YouTube Channel via a teaser trailer. Gameplay Though similar to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, gameplay in Modern Combat 5: Blackout is different from previous Modern Combat games. Compared to previous games, it is more focused on levelling up and earning better weapons and attachments rather than tactical gameplay. As always, players can crouch, sprint, throw grenades, aim, reload their weapons, jump over obstacles, knife enemies, change and pick up weapons. An entirely new feature to the franchise is that the player is able to choose a soldier class out of 5 classes. Each soldier class has their own different perks and weapons. Soldier classes * Synergy applies to allied soldiers in the vicinity of the player. * Synergy skills were added in the Holiday Update * The Support class was added in the Spring Update, and the Bounty Hunter class was released in the Winter Update. Suit Abilities Suit Abilities were added in the fourth major update. They give players extra perks per armor. Unified Progression and currency Weapons have to be unlocked by getting kills with the weapon class. Once they are unlocked, they can be used in both Campaign and Multiplayer. They will not have to be bought, as there is no currency in the game. Attachments also have to be unlocked per weapon. Perks can be upgraded using Skill Points. Note: the Holiday Update added two forms of currency: Credits to buy Supply Packs and Diamond Dust to buy on the Black Market. These can be bought by in-app purchases. Weapons * Semi-automatic pistols are reintroduced (from Modern Combat 3). Indeed there are no other types of handguns in the game. * The player can hold the trigger to keep firing with semi-automatic weapons. * Shells will fly out of a weapon when fired (also reintroduced from Modern Combat 3). Minimap * The size of the minimap can be increased to fullscreen by tapping on it. * It shows building edges. (Reintroduced from Modern Combat: Sandstorm) * There is no minimap in Campaign missions. Melee * The Melee attack is a separate button again. * The Melee animation is greatly updated. The method of Melee varies randomly, depending on the situation and environment. Customizable controls There are three options to customize your way of using the interface. Each of these can be turned on or off. * Auto-crouch: Crouching is now also performed by moving into cover. * Auto-sprint: The player can choose to hide the sprint button. Sprinting is now performed by dragging the move V-pad up, and it seems that doing so does not cancel reloading. * Auto-fire: Weapons will automatically fire when pointed at an enemy. Aiming down the sights will still be possible. (Singleplayer only) Remaining * Gameloft Live! is no longer used in Modern Combat 5. Players connect using Facebook, Game Center, or Google+. * There is no difficulty mode. The campaign missions just get harder. * A revive mechanic. In Campaign missions, a revive can be bought for 15 . Before the Spring Update, allies would revive you once per mission. You can also revive your teammate if they go down. * Unlike in previous titles, players can't shoot through allies. Apple Watch companion Modern Combat 5: Blackout is the first game in the series that features an Apple Watch companion app. This app focuses on the multiplayer of the game. Launching it gives the user three different options to check out. * Loadout customisation * Detailed multiplayer statistics * Current events Compatibility Apple * iPhone 4S and up * iPad 2 and up * All iPad Minis * iPod Touch 5th generation Android Android compatibility has not been confirmed, but based on the Apple compatibility list, the following Android SoCs should be compatible: * Exynos 4 Dual and newer * Snapdragon S4 and newer * Tegra 3 and newer * AND at least 512MB of RAM Intel chip compatibility is unknown, but it is likely that anything faster than an SGX540 (not including it) should work, assuming Gameloft makes the game x86 compatible. Windows Phone Windows Phone compatibility has not been confirmed yet. It is likely that anything with a high-clocked Snapdragon S4 or newer, and at least 512MB RAM, should be fast enough. Controllers Modern Combat 5 will not be compatible with iOS 7 MFi controllers at launch, but is high on the list of wanted features to be added in an update.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDax2qxAqMY It was planned to be added to the Holiday Update, but this was not reached. However, third party Android controller setups such as SixAxis Controller will work. Delay Modern Combat 5 was confirmed by Gameloft to be delayed from Q4 2013 to sometime in 2014. In November 2013, there were rumors that the release date would be March, but this was never confirmed by Gameloft. In May, Gameloft mentioned over livestreams and other videos that the release date will be in summer 2014. The game was finally released on July 24, 2014, over seven months late. Reception At the first presentation of MC5, at E3 2013, the game was overwhelmingly praised for its high graphics and sound effects. Almost a year later, TouchArcade got a hands-on at Gameloft's, and people first saw the final version of the game. From this point, Modern Combat 5 has gotten extremely divergent ratings. Some weeks before the release of the game, Gameloft livestreamed the first multiplayer gameplay. These videos caused a lot of disappointment, as the graphics, the most anticipated part of the game, are significantly lower in multiplayer than in the singleplayer missions. Bnatesgamer, a very popular Gameloft fan on YouTube, got a copy of Modern Combat 5 some time before the public release. (Note: multiplayer was not available yet.) He praised the game on every single point, and was almost extremely positive about it. Big-name app reviewers gave Modern Combat 5 positive reviews, with most giving a score of 4/5. Android Police praised multiple aspects of the campaign, remarking that "The level design is reasonably good, and the spec ops stuff is surprisingly fun. I actually replayed some of these missions just because", though they disliked that an internet connection was always required even during single player campaign. TouchArcade (4.5/5) "was impressed with the large number of weapons and attachments that can be unlocked in Modern Combat 5", though also noting that the included multiplayer game modes "...don’t showcase anything that hasn’t already been seen in another game". Modern Combat 5: Blackout received highly mixed reviews from players. Overall, its gameplay seems to be more popular with brand new players, or those who began with Modern Combat 4. Players who began with earlier games in the series have generally expressed negative opinions because of the slow-paced multiplayer, very different controls, weapon/attachment balancing, and an overall similarity to [[w:c:deadtrigger|the Dead Trigger series]]. Gallery Helishootingvenice.jpg Screenshot from Venice Map.jpg Sabre SMG Tokyo Map.jpg IMG_0392.jpg Tukura and Grey.jpg|Tukura and Hawk fighting enemies First image of MC5 killcam.png|Multiplayer death screen MC5icon.jpg|Original app icon Modern Combat 5 Blackout Holiday Update.jpg|Second icon Concept art Modern-Combat-5-release-delay.jpg|Concept art for the delay from 2013 to 2014 Modern Combat 5 concept art.jpeg MC5 Tokyo concept art.jpg|Tokyo concept art for the publishing of the name "Blackout" MC5 classes concept art.jpg|Concept art for the four classes mc5pic4.jpg Product sheet MC5.jpg|MC5 Promotional Poster Banner august 15 mc5.jpg|A promotional banner spread by Gameloft in August 2015 to tease the new update. Logos MC5 Reveal Logo.jpg|First logo Modern Combat 5 logo 3.png|Second logo Modern_Combat_5_logo_4.jpg|Third logo Videos Modern Combat 5 - Launch Trailer Modern Combat 5 Multiplayer Squad Battles Modern Combat 5 Hands-on Preview Modern Combat 5 Blackout - E3 Teaser Trailer Modern Combat 5 gameplay at E3 2014 * The first livestream * The second livestream * The first E3 livestream * The third E3 livestream (MC5 gameplay starts at 1:00:05) Trivia * This is the first Modern Combat game not developed by Gameloft Montreal, as Gameloft Bucharest developed Modern Combat 5. The development started before the release of Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour. * The fact that the Unified Progression concept was already being developed before E3 2013 is confirmed by screenshots from E3, in which on the right of the screen was a section with "AssaultRifle" and "Pistol". This was the Assault class. * The uniforms of Spec Ops members (which are also the soldiers in the Loadout preview) have remarkable marks on them. The logo that is seen after completing a mission with around it: "Special Activities Division; Raven Task Force". The name Raven Task Force is also on Bull's goggles. Lower on the arm, there is an insigne with "U.S. Air Force". ** Also, while most soldiers have the United States flag on them, the Support class wears a British flag. This class lacks the Raven Task Force labels. * Modern Combat 5 is the first in the series to offer real world, geographically accurate maps. https://twitter.com/modern_combat/status/403694282973786112/photo/1 * Modern Combat 5 is the first Modern Combat game (excluding Sandstorm) to not feature the protagonists from the previous games. See also * Questions and answers: Talk:Modern Combat 5: Blackout External links * Gameloft US blog * In-game news